Notification system and method

ABSTRACT

A dispatch and notification system that can adjust resources to meet and accommodate real time changes in demand or load is disclosed. The system provides an automated assembly that includes provisions that provide an effective and low cost arrangement that notifies technicians of real time changes in their scheduled work. The system can determine if a real time intervention in a technician&#39;s schedule is necessary and can notify the technician in near real time of changes in assigned tasks.

BACKGROUND

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention is directed to a system and method fornotifying and dispatching employees. The notification system and methodof the present invention may also be used as an accessory or addition toexisting dispatch systems.

[0003] 2. Background of the Invention

[0004] Existing employee dispatch systems and methods include either adispatcher (a person who receives and processes requests for services),or an automated dispatch system. These existing dispatch systems sufferfrom shortcomings and limitations that significantly detract from theirusefulness and their efficient management of resources.

[0005] The limitations of current dispatch systems can be demonstratedby considering an example of a large public utility, such as a localtelephone company that provides telephone services. Local telephonecompanies typically have tens of millions of customers, and thosecustomers request new services or changes in services. These requestsrequire the telephone company to dispatch technicians to servicelocations to make the requested changes in service.

[0006] On average, a local telephone company will make two and a half tothree million service order dispatches per year. Generally, theproductivity per task is about 2 hours, in other words, the requests forservice generally take 2 hours to resolve. With this level ofproductivity, the local telephone company can only assign around fouritems per day per technician. Thus each truck dispatch is extremelycostly to the local telephone company. It therefore becomes imperativethat each dispatch is effective, i.e., each dispatch either actuallyresolves the problem or obtains information needed to resolve theproblem.

[0007] Conventional automated dispatch systems very often assign taskson a first-come, first-serve basis to the first available technician. Asa technician completes or close out a job, the next job in the queue isautomatically assigned to that technician. Occasionally, byhappenstance, this first-come first-serve priority system would produceefficiencies where a second job would come to the technician after thefirst job was completed and the second job would happen to be in thesame location as the first job. This would allow the technician toquickly complete a second job without having to drive to anotherlocation. Unfortunately, these efficiencies seldom occur and then onlyby pure chance. Oftentimes, in fact, that was not the case, and it wouldbe very likely that a technician would leave the first location totravel to the next job site and a second technician would drive up tothat first location to complete a second job there.

[0008] Moreover, in some cases a single problem causes multiplecustomers to lose service or experience poor service. For example,damage to pedestals that provide telephone service to multiple customerscould cause several customers to report problems or loss of service. Thepedestal often is located on the side of the road and provides aconnection between a customer's location and serving centers. Thesepedestals are subject to damage, for example, from cars or even fromstate highway mowers. When damage to these pedestals occurs, the resultis often that multiple outages occur in one locality. Generally,conventional reporting and dispatch systems address this problem bysetting a certain tolerance threshold to indicate a probable commonproblem. For example, if the threshold were set at five, the systemwould require five or more similar complaints or reports of problemsreceived from a common location to assume that a common problem wascausing all of the problems reported by customers. If that thresholdnumber of complaints or reports were met, then only a single technicianwould be dispatched to resolve the problem.

[0009] However, in those cases where the threshold for a system wide orregional problem is not met, as many (in the example provided above) asfour technicians may be deployed to a single site causing enormous wasteof resources and extreme expense to the company.

[0010] Also, customers often cancel appointments or request amodification in service. Sometimes these changes can occur at the lastminute and existing systems have no way of informing the technician ofthese changes. These cancellations and modifications also wastetechnician resources, because technicians waste time waiting forcustomers or are required to return to the same location to make themodifications in service that the customer later requested.

[0011] Another source of ineffective use of technician resources is thelack of knowledge of customer service representatives. Theserepresentatives often lack an understanding of the costs associated withtechnician deployment and of the logistical complexities of managing andassigning a large number of technicians. They are generally trained tomeet the customer's needs and to generate service orders. However,customer service representatives may occasionally create two differentservice orders for related or similar tasks. This could cause twodispatches to be generated and result in two technicians being deployedto the same location to fix what the service representative thinks aretwo different problems, but is instead only a single problem that couldbe handled by a single technician.

[0012] Dispatch systems that use a human dispatcher may permit real timemodification of tasks and assignments. However, these dispatch systems,generally employed by taxicab companies, suffer significant drawbacksthat would prevent them from being employed in large-scale environments.These dispatcher-based dispatch systems rely on a human dispatcher whois given information regarding demand (customers that need rides). Thedispatcher uses this information combined with his or her knowledge ofwhere all of the cabs are to assign the customer pick up to the nearestavailable cab. First, these dispatch systems are very expensive becausea staff of well trained dispatchers are required to work around theclock, 24 hours a day, to match resources with demand. Second, thedispatcher-based systems are not practical for large-scale deploymentbecause human dispatchers cannot accurately track hundreds, much lessthousands, of technicians and their daily assignments. Finally, humandispatcher-based systems rely heavily dependent on the performance ofthe dispatcher or the dispatcher staff. Human error may produce anunacceptable level of errors.

[0013] Thus there is currently a need for a system that accommodatesreal time or near real time changes in load or demand by adjusting orreallocating resources to meet those changing needs. There is also needfor such a system that is also automated, can handle a large number oftechnicians and requests for services, and inexpensively deliversinformation to the technician.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] The present invention is designed to overcome the shortcomings ofthe prior art and to provide an effective and efficient dispatchingsystem that can adjust resources to meet and accommodate real timechanges in demand or load. The invention provides a system that notifiestechnicians of real time changes in their scheduled work. The system candetermine if a real time intervention in a technician's schedule isnecessary and can notify the technician in near real time of changes inassigned tasks. In this way, the invention adjusts the allocation ofresources to meet real time changes in demand.

[0015] Once a technician has been dispatched to complete a task, thesystem monitors cancellations and changes that may be requested by thecustomer for that task. The system sends information to adjust theassignment of the technician to efficiently utilize the technician'stime in situations where the customer has requested late or last minutecancellations or changes.

[0016] The system allows real time or near real time instructions to besent to the technician. These instructions can include changes ormodifications to the task assigned to the technician. The instructionscan also include notices that the task has been canceled, or that thetechnician should complete the assigned task and then remain at thatlocation to receive the next assignment.

[0017] The invention may include a system that considers the followinginformation in determining if a real time intervention is necessary:information regarding the work history of the technician or the numberof hours the technician has worked in a pay period, including the numberof overtime hours, the availability of the technician, thequalifications of the technician, and the suitable locations where thetechnician is most beneficially dispatched.

[0018] An object of the present invention is to reduce or eliminate theinefficient use of technicians.

[0019] Another object of the present invention is to maximize theutilization of technicians.

[0020] Another object of the present invention is to provide a systemthat adjusts and reallocates resources to meet real time changes in loador demand.

[0021] Another object of the present invention is to provide real timeor near real time information to a technician regarding the status ofhis assignments.

[0022] Additional features and advantages of the invention well be setforth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparentfrom the description, or may be learned by practicing the invention. Theobjectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized andattained by the structure particularly pointed out in the writtendescription and claims as well as the appended drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0023]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0024]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another preferred embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0025]FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a preferred embodimentof the present invention. When a problem 102 arises and is reported to anotification system 104, according to the present invention,notification system 104 reviews the qualifications of a number oftechnicians 106, and selects the most suitable technician 108 todispatch to the problem 102.

[0026] Once the suitable technician 108 has been dispatched or is enroute 110 to the problem, the invention allows real time or near realtime instructions to be sent to the technician. These instructions caninclude changes or modifications to the task assigned to the technician108. Preferably, those instructions also include notices that the tasktechnician 108 is currently heading towards has been canceled, or thatthe technician should complete the assigned task and then remain at thatlocation to receive the next assignment.

[0027] In a preferred embodiment, the system 104 includes informationregarding the work history of the technician or the number of hours thetechnician has worked in a pay period, including the number of overtimehours, the availability of the technician, the qualifications of thetechnician, and suitable locations to which the technician is mostbeneficially dispatched. In addition to considering all of these factorsin deciding to send information to the technician 108, the system 104also monitors problem information and requests for service sent to thesystem by customers and customer service representatives. The system 104analyzes requests for modifications to existing assignments anddetermines if a real time intervention is required. If a real timeintervention is required, the system 104 sends a message to thetechnician 108 and informs the technician 108 of that information.

[0028]FIG. 2 is a preferred embodiment of the present invention in whichvarious components have been assembled and linked together to provide anotification system 200. The notification system 200 includes a dispatchunit 202, a centralized call-out system (CCS) 206, an employeescheduling program (ESP) 208 and a paging system 210. The system 200 cancommunicate with various other devices, for example, an access unit 204via access system 203 and pagers 212 via paging system 210.

[0029] The dispatch unit 202 serves several functions. Dispatch unit202, according to this embodiment, receives information 201 aboutproblems or requests for service from customers directly or throughcustomer service representatives. These problems could include reportsof downed lines, loss of service, poor service and other problems thataffect the services rendered. Examples of requests for service includerequests to modify or change the services rendered. In the specificcontext of a local telephone company, this could include requests to addadditional telephone lines, to add DSL lines, to install additionaltelephone jacks, and other types of service. Preferably, the dispatchunit 202 receives information regarding problems or requests for servicethrough customer service representatives who complete an interactivecomputerized form. Preferably, this information, which may include thecustomer's name, address, telephone number, billing information, andnature of problem, is communicated to the dispatch system 202 when atechnician intervention is required.

[0030] Dispatch unit 202 communicates with one or more access units 204via an access system 203. The access system 203, which is capable ofwireless or wireline communications with access units 204, alsocommunicates with dispatch unit 202. The access system 203 conveysinformation from the access units 204 to dispatch unit 202. In anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, the Tech Plus system isused as the access system 203. The Tech Plus system is disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/343,815, which is assigned to the sameassignee as the present application, and is incorporated by referenceherein. The access units 204 are preferably each associated with atechnician. Preferably, each technician is assigned an access unit 204and can use the access unit 204 to communicate with the dispatch unit202. For purposes of clarity, this disclosure will describe a singleaccess unit 204, but it should be kept in mind that many other accessunits 204 may be in communication with dispatch unit 202. Dispatch unit202 sends information regarding work assignments to the access unit 204via access system 203, which is capable of wireless or wirelinecommunication with access unit 204. In an exemplary embodiment of theinvention, the dispatch system 202 is an LMOS™ (Loop MaintenanceOperating System) created by Lucent Technologies.

[0031] Dispatch system 202 sends assignment information to access unit204 via access system 203 and technicians use access unit 204 toretrieve assignment information. Access unit 204 is preferably equippedwith a display 220 and an input portion 222. Preferably, only oneassignment is sent to the access unit 204 at a time and a secondassignment is only sent after the first assignment has been completed orclosed by the technician. Access unit 204 may also include provisionsthat allow technicians to retrieve infrastructure information. Forexample, in the context of a local telephone company, infrastructureinformation could include the number of lead pairs available to aparticular location, the number of switches available and otherinformation related to infrastructure. Access unit 204 may also includeprovisions that allow technicians to run tests on the customer'sequipment.

[0032] The employee scheduling program (ESP) 208 communicates withdispatch unit 202 and centralized call-out system (CCS) 206. ESP 208contains a database that associates each technician with an employee ortechnician number and a system number. Preferably, the system number isan LMOS™ system number. The use of a system number is optional, but maybe helpful where systems allow only three digit employee numbers andthose same employee numbers must be used over again for differentemployees in different regions. Adding a regional designation or asystem number allows each employee to have a unique identification. ESP208 also includes a detailed database that contains schedule informationfor some or all of the technicians. ESP 208 preferably stores thescheduling information for all or some of the technicians for up to oneyear. Maintenance personnel preferably maintain, enter, and modify theschedules of technicians using the ESP 208.

[0033] ESP 208 provides information regarding the availability oftechnicians to dispatch unit 202. Preferably, ESP 208 providestechnician numbers, system numbers, and scheduling information todispatch unit 202. The dispatch unit 202 preferably stores a detailed,but shorter time span of information regarding scheduling. While thepreferred ESP may store a year of scheduling information, the preferreddispatch unit 202 may store only about three to five days of schedulinginformation. In addition to providing information to dispatch unit 202,ESP 208 also provides information to CCS 206. Preferably, ESP 208provides technician numbers, system numbers, and scheduling informationto CCS 206.

[0034] Once CCS 206 receives information from ESP 208, CCS 206constructs a table or database that includes technician numbers, systemnumbers, pager numbers, and pager types. The pager numbers and pagertypes that are carried by the technicians are stored in CCS 206, and CCS206 associates these pager numbers and pager types with the additionalinformation sent to it by ESP 208. The pager numbers are associated withpagers worn or carried by technicians. CCS 206 is in communication withboth the dispatch unit 202 and a paging system 210.

[0035] In order to maximize the efficient use of resources, namely, thetechnicians and their time, the system 200 can dynamically adjusttechnician deployment to accommodate real time changes in load or demandfor services. Notification system 200 accomplishes this by rapidlynotifying technicians of information that could affect their workschedule as soon as possible, and by diverting technicians away frominefficient situations to locations where their talents and skills willbe more effectively utilized. These notices to technicians can occur innear real time and even during the critical period after the technicianhas been dispatched to a job site.

[0036] In order to accomplish this near real time adjustment intechnician deployment, system 200 preferably uses a number of differentcomponents. The following example of an adjustment demonstrates howsystem 200 can dynamically adjust technician deployment in near realtime.

[0037] Initially, dispatch unit 202 is functioning in its normalroutine. It receives problems or requests for service 201, matchestechnicians based on the factors mentioned above, then transmits tasksand assignments to access unit 204 via access system 203. As notedabove, the dispatch unit 202 may assign tasks in any suitable manner.However, the preferred method of assignment considers several factorsincluding commitment dates and time, severity of the outage, the revenuegenerated by the service order, and the availability of a close-bytechnician. Technicians are preferably assigned based upon geographicregions, which are areas bound by natural geographic barriers.Technicians who are geographically located closer to the task being thepreferred dispatch technician. The technicians read the tasks and driveto those destinations to make the necessary repairs or changes inservice. Occasionally, dispatch unit 202 will retrieve additionalinformation from the ESP 208 and update its technician work schedules.

[0038] Dynamic adjustments occur when dispatch unit 202 is notified of amodification or change to a technician's schedule, or learns of asituation that could result in more efficient use of resources.Customers sometimes call their customer service representatives tonotify them that they need to cancel, postpone or change a work requestthey had previously submitted. When this occurs, the customer servicerepresentative relays the information to dispatch unit 202.

[0039] When the dispatch unit 202 receives the notification that a workrequest has been changed or modified, the dispatch unit 202 determinesif an intervention by CCS 206 would be helpful. Any desired situation orcondition that helps to prevent waste of technician resources ormaximize technician utilization may be used by the dispatch unit 202 todetermine if a CCS 206 intervention would be helpful.

[0040] Preferably, a condition where a technician has already beendispatched to a job site to an assigned task combined with a request formodification of that task is the condition used to determine a CCS 206intervention. After dispatch unit 202 has determined that a CCS 206intervention would be helpful, dispatch unit 202 communicatesappropriate information to CCS 206 so that CCS 206 can provide real timeadjustment information to the technician. Preferably, dispatch unit 202communicates geographic information, that is, where in the serviceregion the technician must go to respond to the request and where thetechnician is located or assigned; information associated with thetechnician, like the employee number and the technician's system number;and information related to the modification or change in schedule ortask.

[0041] This information is used by CCS 206 to determine which technicianshould receive the information and what information that technicianshould receive. Once the identity of the technician and the adjustmentinformation to be sent to the technician has been determined, CCS 206communicates this information to a paging system 210. Preferably, theinformation communicated to the paging system 210 includes thetechnician's pager number and an information code. CCS 206 can alsopreferably send a text message, if the technician's pager is capable ofreceiving text messages.

[0042] The paging system 210 receives the information from CCS 206 andsends a page to the technician's pager 212. After the technician hasbeen paged, the technician can review the information displayed on pager212 and act accordingly.

[0043] Some of the preferred messages that are sent to techniciansinclude codes that inform the technicians that a job has been canceledor modified. Another code that can be sent to the technician informs thetechnician that the next job will be at the same or nearby location. Inessence, this code is a “remain where you are and standby for the nextjob” command. Obviously, if a customer wants to cancel a previouslyscheduled service order, the cancel code will be transmitted. Similarly,if a customer wants to change or modify a previously scheduled serviceorder, the change or modify code will be transmitted to the technician.When the technician receives the change or modify code, the technicianis preferably trained to retrieve the new job from the access system204. Finally, if the system 200 determines that it would be beneficialfor the technician to remain at a certain location after a job has beencompleted, the remain code will be transmitted. In an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, the cancel code is 333, the modifyor change code is 444 and the remain code is 555.

[0044] Any of the various components or sub-steps disclosed above can beused either alone, or with other existing components, or with componentsor features of the present invention.

[0045] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the dynamic carrierselection system of the present invention without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention.

[0046] The foregoing disclosure of embodiments of the present inventionhas been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It isnot exhaustive or intended to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed herein. Many variations and modifications of the embodimentsdescribed herein will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art inlight of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to bedefined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for dispatching technicians comprising:(a) a database including information as to the work histories andavailabilities of a plurality of technicians; (b) a dispatch unit; (c) acentralized call-out system; and (d) a plurality of access units,wherein the dispatch unit receives a first request for service,generates a work assignment in response to the first request forservice, matches the work assignment to one of the plurality oftechnicians, and sends the work assignment to one of the plurality ofaccess units, said one of the plurality of access units being associatedwith the one of the plurality of technicians, and wherein thecentralized call-out system constructs a database including techniciannumbers associated with the plurality of technicians.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the database also includes the qualifications of atleast one of the plurality of technicians.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the system monitors a second request for service received afterthe first request for service by the system, analyzes the second requestfor service, and determines if real time intervention is required tomodify the previously assigned work assignments.
 4. The system of claim3, wherein the system notifies the one of the plurality of techniciansby sending a message to the one of the plurality of technicians if thesystem determines a need for the real time intervention.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the dispatch unit determines if intervention by thecentralized call-out system is required.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein the centralized call-out system sends adjustment information tothe one of the plurality of technicians.
 7. A notification systemcomprising: (a) a dispatch unit capable of receiving requests forservice and sending assignments to an access unit; (b) a call-out systemin communication with the dispatch unit and a messaging system, whereinthe call-out system sends a message to the message system when apredetermined condition has been met.
 8. The notification systemaccording to claim 7, wherein the messaging system is adapted to sendmessages to a pager.
 9. The notification system according to claim 7,wherein the dispatch unit receives status information from the accessunit and can determine the dispatch status of the access unit.
 10. Thenotification system according to claim 9, wherein the call-out system iscapable of sending the message after the dispatch unit has determinedthat the access unit is in a dispatch status.
 11. The notificationsystem according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined conditionincludes a first factor, the first factor being the status of the accessunit.
 12. The notification system according to claim 7, wherein thepredetermined condition includes a second factor, the second factorbeing a specific type of work request.
 13. A method for servicing asystem comprising the steps of: (a) maintaining a database containinginformation regarding the work history of a plurality of technicians;(b) receiving information about a request for servicing the system andgenerating a responsive work request; (c) selecting one of the pluralityof technicians to carry out the work request; (d) assigning the workrequest to the one of the plurality of technicians; and (e) receivingadditional information regarding the request for servicing the systemand adjusting the work request accordingly.
 14. The method of claim 13,further comprising sending the adjusted work request to the one of theplurality of technicians.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein thedatabase also comprises the qualifications of the plurality oftechnicians.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the system comprises adispatch unit that communicates with the one of the plurality oftechnicians with an access unit.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein theaccess unit is a pager.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein the one ofthe plurality of technicians retrieves infrastructure information fromthe system.
 19. A method of notifying a technician comprising the stepsof: (a) receiving a first request for service; (b) creating a work orderfrom the first request for service; (c) assigning a technician to thework order and communicating the assignment to the technician; (d)monitoring second requests for service, the second requests beingreceived after the first request; (e) determining if the technicianshould receive a message because of one of the second requests forservice; and (f) sending the message to the technician if it has beendetermined that the technician should receive the message.
 20. Themethod according to claim 19, wherein the message includes a code. 21.The method according to claim 19, wherein the first request for serviceincludes a target completion date and time, and wherein the secondrequests for services are received on the target completion date. 22.The method according to claim 19, wherein the first request for serviceincludes a target completion date and time, and wherein the secondrequests for services are received on the target completion date. 23.The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of determining if thetechnician should receive a message because of one of the secondrequests for service further comprises monitoring the dispatch status ofthe technician.
 24. The method according to claim 19, further comprisingmonitoring the status of the technician, one status state being adispatch status; and wherein the message is sent to the technician whilethe technician is in the dispatch status.